Parents using “Social Media Shaming” as a new form of discipline.

This is a follow-up to a recent post we had about a father whooping his daughter and posting it on facebook. (read about it here) We used it as a talking point to discuss when does disciplining by spanking become child abuse and corporal punishment?

Looking at the comments on that post and on our facebook page, we were somewhat surprised by the number of responses “in favor” of beating this child as a necessary form of discipline.

Granted, a lot of comments were saying the “time fit the crime,” since the 13 year old in the story was missing for three days hanging out with boys dressed up like Beyonce. But, other comments mentioned that there were a lot things that the father/parents probably weren’t doing that led up to this young girl’s bad behavior. The man was in fact punishing the child for his “alleged” lack of parental guidance and supervision.

We will never know the facts in that story, but what’s a parent supposed to do????

There is this new trend of disciplining that combines old school embarrassment with new school technology. It’s called “Social Media Shaming,” It’s where parents take videos and post them on social media. In these cases, parents use humiliation as a form of punishment. In these cases, parents use humiliation as a form of punishment.

Hopefully, we can use this as a teachable moment in discussing whether public humiliation via social media is an effective way of disciplining or is it becoming another form of emotional child abuse.

Watch the clips and let us know your thoughts?

This was the first video that went viral and started the haircutting trend of Social Media Shaming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykmZXbWgB_o

Since that first video, other parents have joined in on this approach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8CUU1tkPyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnKCINu1_o

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